5 things you need to know in Australian tech today

Joel Macdonald of the Demons is tackled during the round 14 AFL match between the St Kilda Saints and the Melbourne Demons at Etihad Stadium on July 4, 2010 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

Huzzah, it’s the weekend! Make sure you get up to speed with these must-read tech stories before you run out of the office.

1. A tech firm accused of taking $25 million from mum-and-dad investors will be wound up. The Federal Court has appointed liquidators for search engine company Uglii, which allegedly attracted unsophisticated investors — including pensioners, bushfire victims and truck drivers — with promises that its products would change the world. ASIC became concerned this year after the firm never generated any income in 18 years of existence. Read more here.

2. A startup founded by a former AFL player has listed on the ASX. It has been a long journey for delivery logistics software provider GetSwift, which was all set for a reverse listing in April before that deal fell through. Its founder Joel Macdonald also had a public spat with early backer BlueChilli and its chief Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin, who left the GetSwift board earlier this year. The IPO has raised $5 million for the company, despite it showing just $100,000 revenue and $400,000 net loss for the 2016 financial year. Check out the saga here.

3. 24 projects have won $3.4 million of government grants to support female participation in technology and science. Startup Smart reports the Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship (WISE) program has awarded funds to ideas such as coding classes for schoolgirls, a “women in STEM” video channel to drone camps for girls.

4. Commonwealth Bank says its battle with Apple for access to iPhone NFC antenna is not about the interchange fee. The AFR reports CBA exec Matt Comyn as saying the sticking point in negotiations is not the fee that Apple is demanding, but rather that the bank wants customers to be able to have multiple digital wallets.

5. Microsoft could be back in the mobile race again. Overnight the tech giant showed off standard Windows 10 applications running on a mobile-specialist ARM chip using an emulator, potentially solving the long-standing problem of not having enough software available on Windows phones. Read more here.